Relay camper white smoke issues

[Triumph1500]

Afternoon all,

I have a Citroen Relay camper van that's doing my head in.... let me explain. The story goes that it had been sat for almost 18 months after the last owner passed away and then I got picked it up from his daughter. Now it ran fine with only a hint of black smoke on start up and all was fine. Took it for an MOT major fail on welding but that's another story, drove to and from the test station ok and that sat for another two weeks while I did the welding and other jobs. Came to move it the other day started fine no issues at all but when I came to move it wouldn't rev above 3000 rpm and blows white smoke out like you wouldn't believe. Now when the engine is cold starts and drives fine but as soon as it gets up to temp that's when it all goes pair shaped losses power won't rev and tons of white smoke.
So far I'v replaced the injections, glow plugs, glow plug Relay, fuel and air filters and fixed a couple of vacuum leaks but still the same. Anyone got any ideas where I go from here ? Thanks in advance.

[white exec]

Hi and welcome!

Tons of white smoke when warm, with increased clouds of it as you push the throttle down, sounds like antifreeze (glycol) burning - i.e. coolant getting into one of the bores - = head gasket issue.

If there is a leak between a bore and a waterway in the HG, coolant can get into the bore, and hot exhaust get squirted into the coolant. Does coolant small of exhaust? Are you losing any coolant, or getting coolant overheating?

Also, when the engine is warm, try cranking it, but not allowing it to fire up (eg by disconnecting the 12v feed to the Engine Stop solenoid). If compression is down on one cylinder, you'll hear the cranking accelerate every fourth compression. Low compression => poor burning of fuel => also to white/grey smoke.

[Triumph1500]

Thanks for the reply.

It's not using any water and the coolant smells as it should but I will try the cranking thing

[Triumph1500]

Just tried cranking over and it's all even.
I started it and noticed that it misfired at 2000 to 3000 rpm blows white smoke and then cleared up between 3000 to 6000 rpm with no smoke at all on tick over. Real head scratcher

[white exec]

That seems to eliminate the HG and loss of compression.
Maybe check the pump timing?

[Simple76]

What engine has the vehicle fitted?

[Triumph1500]

2.0 8v diesel

[Triumph1500]

2.0 8v diesel not sure what the exact name is

[Simple76]

Remove glow plugs and inspect for different colour on tips. It can only be coolant getting into engine if it’s white smoke. You should be able to see it on tips of one off the glow plugs .

[Triumph1500]

The glow plugs are all the same. I'm starting to think I have air leaks somewhere like the inlet manifold

[Simple76]

Does the smoke smell of diesel?.

[Ian M france]

could be problem with EGR valve if allowing too much exhaust back into engine, when my EGR valve failed hdi 16v the van would tick over but if I tried to drive it would just stall, lots of white smoke as no clean air to burn so un-burnt diesel vapour in exhaust, you might have same thing but only sticking open at some engine speeds if fitted with EGR try blocking it off and see if it makes any difference

[GiveMeABreak]

2.0 8v diesel not sure what the exact name is

Post up your VIN here and I'll be able to advise exact engine type.

[Bick]

You need to get it on a diagnostic machine before you start doing anything else, very odd the problems started after you welded on the vehicle.

I would check every bit of the vehicle you worked on to see if you have damaged wiring of pipework and then get a diagnostic done. The fact its only revving to 3k means its in safe mode because the ecu has detected a fault.

[Triumph1500]

Ok here we go.... I took the EGR valve and cooler off to check the valve and in doing so noticed coolant inside the cooler. On closer inspection you can just make out a hair line crack in the inside of the cooler so after refitting the EGR valve and cooler along with bypassing the cooler by putting the pipe straight into the heater matrix I ran the van up to temp and went for a drive and it's all good so looks like once the engine was up to temp the crack was opening up and letting a small amount of coolant in to the inlet manifold coupled with when the EGR valve opened hence the issue only happening at certain revs. It's been a real pain but hopefully my bad luck will serve to help others with the same problem.
Just want to say thanks to everyone who contributed to this post it help me rule out a few things so thanks very much